Standing Charge where no electricity is used

jimmoores

Good morning.
We have knocked two terraced houses together (many years ago) and there still remain two electricity meters. One is not in use as all of the supply has been routed through one meter.
For years after informing the supplier we have paid no bills for the meter which is not used. Then suddenly this year (or late last year) we started getting quarterly bills for "Total electricity charges" of £29.49 per quarter. We rang E-ON and they said we had to pay the "standing charge" even though there has been no electricity used for over a decade.
We pay for all our electricity on the other meter which I presume has a standing charge as well.The E-ON bills make no mention of "Standing Charge".
Your advice would be much appreciated.

Nada666

Switch to a supplier who does not have a standing charge or pay a few hundred pounds to have the unneeded meter removed.

spiro

The government think joe public is too stupid to understand Two tier tariffs compared to one tier and a daily standing charge, as a result all suppliers have to move to this pricing model. Plus for your 2nd unused meter they still legally have to read it, pay rental on the meter and bill you. Therefore you would probably be better off getting it disconnected but you need to check how much this would cost compared to £120pa standing charge.

matelodave

You'd need to get your electricity supplier to remove the meter (it belongs to them) and isolate the feed otherwise they'll still have it registered as an available circuit even though you haven't had it in use for years.

[Deleted User]

switch to Ebico for the unused meter, they advertise zero standing charges. If you remove the meter there will be another payment to re install if you revert back to two seperate propertys.

jimmoores

Thanks for all the responses, very helpful.

Regards

Jim

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi jimmoores

Already some good info on here. Thought I'd just add that we introduced Standing Charges across all our tariffs on 18 January 13.

These replaced our previous two tier charging structure where the first amount of usage was charged at a higher rate.

Under our old policy, as no electricity was going through the second meter, you wouldn't have seen any charges. However, following the changes on 18 January 13, there's now a daily charge regardless of whether or not there's any usage.

The Standing Charge is detailed on page 2 of your bill under Electricity Charges.

Hope this is of interest. Let me know if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

zeupater

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi jimmoores

Already some good info on here. Thought I'd just add that we introduced Standing Charges across all our tariffs on 18 January 13.

These replaced our previous two tier charging structure where the first amount of usage was charged at a higher rate.

Under our old policy, as no electricity was going through the second meter, you wouldn't have seen any charges. However, following the changes on 18 January 13, there's now a daily charge regardless of whether or not there's any usage.

The Standing Charge is detailed on page 2 of your bill under Electricity Charges.

Hope this is of interest. Let me know if you need any more info as will be happy to help.

Malc

Hi Malc

Quick question ..... why did the industry push for pricing structure simplification through sun-setting NSC tariffs as opposed to SC ones .. or .. really simplify by introducing single tier NSC as is already available elsewhere ??

Could it possibly be as a result of a little foresight which Ofgem & HM Government both seem to lack - ie, a little industry 'hoodwinking' of the clearly 'common-senseless' public sector employees in order to maintain energy sector revenues as household energy efficiencies improve ?? .... Just an educated guess, but one which is almost certainly correct !!

Z

Former_E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc

Hi Z

Sorry for the late reply. Just noticed your question.

I'm afraid, I can't comment on the regulatory and government sectors or the other suppliers. What I can say, though, is our move to standing charge tariffs came out of our Reset Review.

This was launched almost 2 years ago and looked at all the relationships we have with our customers.

We took on board what a lot of our customers were saying and decided the way we charged for energy needed to be simpler, clearer and more transparent. We want customers to know exactly what they're paying for and feel standing charges are one way of doing this.

Whilst we understand they're not to everyone's liking, the feedback we've received has persuaded us they're the way forward for the majority of our customers.

Malc

zeupater

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi Z

Sorry for the late reply. Just noticed your question.

I'm afraid, I can't comment on the regulatory and government sectors or the other suppliers. What I can say, though, is our move to standing charge tariffs came out of our Reset Review.

This was launched almost 2 years ago and looked at all the relationships we have with our customers.

We took on board what a lot of our customers were saying and decided the way we charged for energy needed to be simpler, clearer and more transparent. We want customers to know exactly what they're paying for and feel standing charges are one way of doing this.

Whilst we understand they're not to everyone's liking, the feedback we've received has persuaded us they're the way forward for the majority of our customers.

Malc

Hi Malc

Thanks for the feedback, but I would like to point out that if the measure was to simplify tariffs then E.ON and other players in the industry sector seem to have misunderstood what their customer base meant when asking for 'simplification' of the product offerings ... I just wonder whether this was a deliberate ploy in order to protect and improve margins ...

When customers ask for simplification it's not because we're 'thick' and can't manage to work out either a NSC tiered tariff or what a standing charge is, means, or costs ... it's simply that there are far too many tariffs running concurrently with different start/end dates, rates, regional variations etc, even different standing charges on different offerings.

Regarding the standing charge, well that's a pretty decent indicator which can be used to evaluate the efficiency or honesty of the supplier - I'll explain why. Standing charges are designed to cover the fixed cost element of supply to a customer property & running a customer account, therefore the cost for an account should be fixed, not variable. The only reasonable explanation for a difference in standing charge between one supplier and another is the relative administrational cost efficiencies between them, other than that it comes down to the honesty of the supplier as to what else is being loaded into the fixed cost element - for example, there is the possibility that a proportion, or even the whole, of the annual profit expectation for each customer could be added to the fixed costs, therefore, whatever the customer base does to improve energy efficiency and reduce usage, profit value is maintained .... It does make you think, doesn't it !!

If the industry really wanted to simplify their offerings so that we, the 'thick' customers, would understand them best, then there should be a single national tariff with amortised fixed costs - ie, no standing charge ... there can really be nothing simpler, however inconvenient the truth & the effect on profitability may be.

Sorry, it's not possible to blame the situation on the government, legislation or regulation. What has happened is directly as a result of the main players in the energy supply sector acting as a single entity and convincing the regulator that this was the 'best' way forward. It seems that it's not only the customers which are considered as being unable to understand simple logic, it's the regulator too .... seeing that Ofgem fell for the offered solution 'hook, line & sinker' it really does look like the customers which they are supposed to protect aren't as 'thick' as they are ...

Having moved to a situation where all offerings are based on the standing charge then the energy sector have moved to focus to the standing charge and it's relative cost between themselves, so expect the comparisons to begin ....

Of course, there's always the option of having a zero-rated standing charge and of course, anyone with a low usage and highly seasonal usage patterns (fuel poverty and/or renewables technologies) would likely be considered by those outside the energy sector to be pretty 'thick' if this option wasn't considered and potential moneysavings which could be achieved through moving to a supplier with such an offering was researched.

A simple message to all players in the energy sector .... come clean, be fair, be honest and move to a 'simple' national single tariff NSC offering. Other sectors don't have their profitability protected by regulation, so why is it considered necessary in this one ?

A simple message to Ofgem .... you are considered by many to be unfit for purpose, so 'simply' prove that you're not or be prepared to be wound-up and replaced by someone who can do your jobs much better and probably much cheaper ....

HTH
Z

jestyenot

E.ON_Company_Representative:_Malc wrote: »

Hi Z

Sorry for the late reply. Just noticed your question.

I'm afraid, I can't comment on the regulatory and government sectors or the other suppliers. What I can say, though, is our move to standing charge tariffs came out of our Reset Review.

This was launched almost 2 years ago and looked at all the relationships we have with our customers.

We took on board what a lot of our customers were saying and decided the way we charged for energy needed to be simpler, clearer and more transparent. We want customers to know exactly what they're paying for and feel standing charges are one way of doing this.

Whilst we understand they're not to everyone's liking, the feedback we've received has persuaded us they're the way forward for the majority of our customers.

Malc

I am an E.on customer and I would like to ask why are the standing charges different depending which tarif you are on.

I have just recieved a letter from Eon telling me that my current plan, which is the Age UK 1 year fixed V2, is shortly coming to an end. The letter gives details of my current plan and of my New Plan, which would be the E.ON Energy plan and here are the rates it gives.
E.ON energy Plan:-

Electricity
Standing Charge 27.395 Normal Rate 13.493 ech (inc. VAT)

Gas
Standing Charge 27.39 Normal Rate 4.334 each (inc. VAT)

Age UK Fixed 1 year V2

Electricity
Standing Charge 28.94 - Normal Rate 23.052 (inc. VAT)

Gas
Standing Charge 40.139 - Normal Rate 3.90 (inc. Vat)

===============================

Take note of the Standing Charge for gas in the 2 plans.

The Age UK standing charge 11.19 pence.

How can that be right, one would have thought that the Age UK would be a little cheaper because it is designed for people over 65.

Sort of makes nonsense when you say you introduced standing charges to make the bills simpler, I paid more in standing charges this quarter than the gas I used. Also, no-one asked me if I would like to pay standing charges.